Telephone ordering services available today are the commonly known type wherein a customer can place a call to a remote vendor and order a given product by a product code. However, the call is received by the vendor either through an operator or a computer, through which the particulars of the product codes, credit card identification, mailing address and the like are communicated. Such services are presently available for ordering of merchandise such as those normally found in department stores, and more recently, even in grocery stores. In addition, many computer communication services using telephone lines have been commercially available (for example, CompuServe), thereby enabling us to order many products such as books, computer hardware, and software through the communication services. A typical telephone ordering service is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,904, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The foregoing ordering system includes many drawbacks. One of the more obvious ones is that it is difficult for a customer to buy clothes, shoes, or other products which must fit his/her body size. In such a case, many customers avoid telephone ordering and directly visit department stores or any particular shops so as not to encounter such size problems.